During the parliamentary debate on Tuesday, January 7, in the Assembly of the Republic, deputy Pedro Pinto, from the Chega party, stated that security problems in Portugal are not just perceptions, but a reality. To reinforce his argument, he pointed to the case of Albufeira, describing it as “a peaceful municipality in our Algarve” which, allegedly, now has “the highest crime rate in Portugal”.
According to the most recent data released by the National Statistics Institute (INE), referring to 2023, Albufeira was, in fact, the municipality with the highest crime rate in the country, recording 88 crimes per thousand inhabitants. The most frequent crimes in this area mainly include crimes against property (42.5‰), followed by crimes against physical integrity (9.8‰) and driving under the influence of alcohol with a rate equal to or greater than 1. 2 g/l (7.6‰).
Despite the high crime rate, Albufeira does not lead in the absolute number of crimes in the district of Faro. In 2023, 4182 crimes were reported in the municipality, while in Loulé, the total number of criminal reports was higher, with 5094 cases, according to the Annual Internal Security Report.
The website “Criminality in Portugal in 2023”, which uses the same data from the Annual Internal Security Report and population from the 2021 Census, but with a different methodology — excluding Autonomous Regions and municipalities with less than 10 thousand inhabitants — also places Albufeira at the top on the list, with 9.47 crimes per 100 inhabitants. Next come Loulé (7.04%), Porto (6.27%), Lisbon (6.17%) and Sines (5.47%).
Thus, Pedro Pinto’s statements are correct, according to the most recent statistics available, as revealed by our source, . We remind you that Albufeira is one of the cities that receives the most tourists in the country, particularly foreigners, in the summer.
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